Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 Kyōka shiki jinbutsu 狂歌四季人物 ca. 1855

Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (1797 – 1859)

Period: Edo (1615 – 1868)

Editor: Tenmei Rōjin

Publisher: Unknown

Date: 1855 (Ansei 2)

Medium: Full color, woodblock

Illustrated by Utagawa Hiroshige, Kyōka shiki jinbutsu is an exercise in seasonality. Focusing on the coming of the New Year, Hiroshige pairs kyōka poetry and illustrations, capturing scenes from daily life: boisterous salesman shout and deliver sake, children play with kites, and traveling book lenders plod through the streets, their backs burdened by piles upon piles of books.

In addition to capturing these tableaux of the everyday, Hiroshige also depicts the specific seasonal activities of townspeople in response to the themes set by the poets. In an opening about the events for the New Year, the right side shows two men trading barbs in the back-and-forth comedy style of manzai, while across the page a woman writes her first calligraphy of the year (kakizome). Another scene presents the protective dances (daikagura) performed to Shintō gods near the turn of the New Year by traveling priests from Ise Shrine. In the opening shown here, the poets write verses on two summer themes—goldfish-selling and large fireworks displays—matched by Hiroshige with images that seem observed from life. 

Hiroshige grew up in a minor samurai family and was bestowed with the artistic name Hiroshige after only a year apprenticing with the celebrated Utagawa Toyohiro (1773-1828). He was one of the most prolific illustrators of the first half of the nineteenth century, sponsored by publishers with series on the stations of the Tōkaidō road, famous sites of the city of Edo, and other landscape themes. Hiroshige was highly appreciated by European and American collectors as well as artists Claude Monet (1840-1926), Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), and James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), among others. 

Other Copies

Other copies are found in collections at UC Berkeley, Williams College, and the Metropolitan Museum

Selected Reading

Andō, Hiroshige, and Gian Carlo Calza. Hiroshige: The Master of Nature. Skira, 2009.

 

Posted by Kemuel Benyehudah